In 1962, a school in what is now Tanzania had a problem administrators definitely did not cover in teacher training: uncontrollable laughter.

It reportedly began with a few girls at a mission-run boarding school in Kashasha. Soon, dozens of students were having repeated laughing fits that could last minutes or much longer, sometimes mixed with crying, fainting, or breathing trouble.

This was not a comedy club outbreak. Researchers later described it as a form of mass psychogenic illness, where stress and social pressure can spread real physical symptoms through a group without a germ or toxin causing it.

The school eventually closed, but the strange wave did not stop there. Similar episodes appeared in nearby villages and other schools, disrupting classes for months.

So yes, a laughter outbreak really helped shut down schools; not because the jokes were too good, but because the human brain is deeply weird under pressure.

Sometimes the punchline is: biology has no chill.